Wildcats hold on to down JC; Saints down Huntington

Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 31, 2004

WOODVILLE &045; Fortunately for Wilkinson County and one unlucky girl underneath the basket, the Wildcats were able to hold on for the win.

But it was as close as it could get. The Wildcats nursed a three-point lead with two seconds left when they sent Jefferson County’s Dudley Guice Jr. to the line to shoot three free throws.

Guice made the first one and missed the second one. But hold on &045; a girl under the basket was called for interference, and the officials gave Guice another shot, which he made.

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But the former Trinity Episcopal standout missed the third one, and the Wildcats got it back to claim a 53-52 win in Region 7-3A and send the Tigers to their second straight loss.

&uot;I still don’t understand it,&uot; WC head coach Henry Storey said. &uot;There were two security guards, but there was a young girl and she kicked up her leg when he shot it. The refs convened, and he got another shot. He made the second one, and I called my last timeout (before Guice missed). It was a close game, and that’s the way it is with us and Jefferson County. I definitely didn’t want to go to overtime.&uot;

Fortunately for the Wildcats (10-8, 6-2), they got the three-point lead with four seconds left in the game to create what little comfort zone they had. Storey called for the spread offense to work the clock, and Corey Dunbar got an open shot under the goal on a pass from Bryant Spiller for the 53-50 lead.

The Wildcats had to battle back from a 31-26 deficit at halftime. Jefferson County (10-13, 6-3) outscored WC 13-7 in that second quarter for the lead and held a 42-38 lead after three.

Joshfer Nichols led the Tigers with 15 points. Bryant led all scorers with 19 points.

Trinity Episcopal 58, Huntington 23

FERRIDAY, La. &045; Depends on how you look at it, the Trinity Episcopal Saints could be gunning for the seventh straight district title.

In the regular season, that is. The Saints (9-9, 7-0) had little trouble with Huntington Tuesday in District 7-A action and moved closer to claiming another regular season title.

But the tournament is still out there, one that if the Saints would win would be their sixth.

But the Saints got 11 points in the first quarter from Stevan Ridley to take a 23-6 lead heading into the second quarter before posting the big win.

&uot;I was really pleased with our offense,&uot; TE head coach David King said. &uot;We had been struggling. This group is always going to play defense, but they seem to struggle offensively. We played three triple-A schools last week. If you play up, you’ll get knocked around &045; but it’ll help you when you get back in your class.&uot;

The Saints got two quick baskets from post Robert Manson at the start of the second quarter to take a 29-6 lead with 4:51 left. After Huntington got a bucket from Mike Ferguson, the Saints got a fast-break basket when Manson grabbed a rebound and heaved it to Ridley, who layed it in for two points.

Manson then tossed in another basket at the 3:12 mark for a 33-8 lead and converted a fast-break layup with seven seconds left to give the Saints a 39-13 lead at halftime.

Manson finished with 16, while Ridley had 15. Huntington’s Mike Ferguson led his team with nine.

WCCA 45, Ben’s Ford 43

WOODVILLE &045; The Rams had a four-point lead in the final seconds before they fouled Chad Cushing and sent him to the line to shoot three free throws with four seconds left.

Cushing, however, hit the last two, and the Rams inbounded the ball and let the time expire for the win.

The Rams led 12-10 after the first quarter and 29-23 at halftime before the Eagles started to chip away at the lead.

Lavalle Johnson had 22 to lead WCCA. Adam Romano’s 16 led Ben’s Ford.

ACCS 65, Copiah 30

NATCHEZ &045; The Adams Christian Rebels have been on a roll after a tough loss to Hillcrest a week and a half ago.

The Rebels extended their winning streak to four in a row as the routed Copiah Tuesday night in MPSA District 2-AAA action to remain in the hunt for the overall No. 1 seed in the Class AAA South State tournament.

Casey Gould led ACCS (14-2, 6-1) with 13 points and Dustin Case added 12 points. No one for hapless Copiah (3-23, 0-7) scored in double figures.

ACCS dominated the game from the opening tip, taking a 15-4 lead at the end of the first quarter and then a 32-11 lead at halftime.

Block 87, Tallulah 74

JONESVILLE, La. &045; Had it not been for a bad first half offensively for the Trojans (14-8, 2-1), this would have been a much closer game than it turned out to be in this District 4-1A game.

Jeremy Washington had another big game for Block (10-6, 1-1), scoring a game-high 35 points. Demetrius Bowie scored 25 points.

Block led Tallulah 35-19 at halftime before the game turned into a shootout in the second half as both teams scored more than 50 points in the final two quarters.

Vidalia 89, Crowville 58

CROWVILLE, La. &045; Vidalia opened up a close game at halftime with a stellar second half on the defensive end to put away Crowville in District 4-2A action.

Ken Johnson scored a game-high 18 points to lead five players in double figures for the Vikings (8-3, 1-1).

Vidalia led Davidson (7-14, 0-3) just 40-32 at the half before taking command in the final two quarters, outscoring the Bulldogs 25-16 in the third quarter and 24-10 in the fourth quarter.

Silliman 60, Centreville 38

CLINTON, La. &045; Silliman’s trio of Hunter Moody, Chad Fontenot and Henry Johnson helped Silliman (9-10, 4-5) to an easy win over Centreville (6-11, 1-8) in an MPSA District 4-AA game Tuesday night.

Moody scored 14 points, Fontenot had 13 points and Johnson added 11 points as the Wildcats moved into a tie for fourth place in district with the win.

Daniel Hall led CA with 21 points.